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Vicki, A couple of thoughts. First, are in you in an organisation subject to FOI? You will want to consider what statutory whips and chains (or sticks choose your metaphor) that you can employ. Another point to make is the need for efficiency and the ability to receive subject access requests. If they have poor records management and they cannot respond to a subject access request, the Information Commissioner will be wanting to visit them after 6 April. To put it differently, ask the senior manager if they have £500,000 available along with the budget to deal with the resultant media storm and the loss of business reputation. Aside from the statutory instruments, you could look at the recent research by the Department for Transport (DfT) on culture change looking at why people change their behaviour and as well as why they do not change their behaviour. See this link: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/scienceresearch/social/behaviour-changes/pdf/questions.pdf The document is part of their wider research project on changing behaviour recently published on their site: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/scienceresearch/social/behaviour-changes/ They found that people change because of changes in the world around them (statutory changes ICO with teeth), in their understanding of the world (your presentation) or in themselves (enlightment or fear?). To succeed you need them to see the change in behaviour seem More advantages more me (i.e. it is who they are (organised efficient and delivering a top quality service) More prevalent (hey everybody else is doing it and it is the social norm for our business (social marketing calls this social norming finally more do able (you need only follow these simple steps and shazaam! you have the change you want.) the other way to do it (or in conjunction) show them that their current behaviour is less of the four categories. I hope this is of use. Good luck. Best, Lawrence Principal Information Management Officer Durham County Council County Hall County Durham DH1 5UF 0191-383-3815 -----Original Message----- From: The UK Records Management mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Vicki Perry Sent: 12 February 2010 09:47 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Setting up a system when staff are reluctant to change Hello, I was wondering if anyone has any experience in setting up a records management system in a company where the staff members are very reluctant to change the way in which they look after their records? I have a meeting with one of our senior managers on Monday and it is a really good opportunity to try and get him on board with more support for the system and therefore obtain the cooperation of other staff members. The main problem that I have at the moment is in setting up regular transfers of records from the offices to the records store, once they are no longer required on a day to day basis. I'm the first person that people contact when they start running out of space in their office, but this means that the retention of records is completely inconsistent and the transfers are usually very large and at very short notice (for example, I got a transfer of 45 boxes a while ago, because the accounts office were having a new carpet fitted!) Additionally, we are currently in the middle of trying to provide evidence of past employees (from the 1980s and earlier) to the IR. Many of these records have been lost, precisely because of the bad records management practices that I am trying to change. Yet I've been told that the personnel team have no intention of transferring the non-current personnel records (at least until their filing cabinet is full) and I have no idea of what they have and what they don't. Has anyone successfully convinced a very reluctant company that although setting up a good records management system takes a lot of work and change in practices, it's a worthwhile use of our resources? Vicki For any technical queries re JISC please email [log in to unmask] For any content based queries, please email [log in to unmask] Durham City of Culture - Back the Bid: register at www.durham.gov.uk. Help protect our environment by only printing this email if absolutely necessary. The information it contains and any files transmitted with it are confidential and are only intended for the person or organisation to whom it is addressed. It may be unlawful for you to use, share or copy the information, if you are not authorised to do so. If you receive this email by mistake, please inform the person who sent it at the above address and then delete the email from your system. Durham County Council takes reasonable precautions to ensure that its emails are virus free. However, we do not accept responsibility for any losses incurred as a result of viruses we might transmit and recommend that you should use your own virus checking procedures. For any technical queries re JISC please email [log in to unmask] For any content based queries, please email [log in to unmask]